il

i5q

n
$l'

[* ffi

hls past motzei Shabbos I dld what 1 usually do that each week. I checked my BlackBerry e-mail l$lffiffi inbox. And. like each week, I received an e-mai1 lrom the radio program TalltlineWithZev Brenner anffi nouncing that nights show: "Dr' MichaelJ Salamon' Woodmere PsycholSgist, factting Abuse in Orthodox Jewlsh Communitrr" My instinctive response was: There they go again "Iim disappointed," was my two-word email reply to Zev.
"Why?" he resPonded in turn' Since he solicited an explanation, i elaborated: "Because this is a biood llbe1 against the Orthodox communlty, perpetrated not

ffire time ffiffiffi

zealots dren from people who wouid hurt them, anti-Orthodox harm The response' to the volleys huu" .u,.rr.d ctnsiderabie rabof vitriol aimed at the community by these anti-religious been to cause many upstanding bl.-rorr"rr, has unfortunately attention members of the community to not give this cause the

it

Dr' 1 was looking forward to the opportunity to confront remarks on the show were remarkable Salamon. Hls opening ' and telling. After discussing the chl1d abuse problem, in a polite demeanor he brought

deserves.

up Natan Slifkin, presumably not a victim oi chlld abuse. Saiamon went on to cite the "Zoo Rabbl"'s unrelated grievances against
the charedi community. Likewise telling was Dr. Salamon's taklng issue with the concept

by Cathollcs, but by our secular brethren'

There are no statistics supporting their allegations. Abuse is not an Orthodox prob1em

of daos Torah.

neiState, which had a serious problem, is nor Orthodox This issue has ther religious " been used against us b1' self-hating Jews Zev persisted: "I have on an Orthodox doctor."

but a giobal human problem'

Penn

told the doctor that, from the religious community's perspective, there were two horrific abuse problems. One perpetrated against children, and the other against the
1

O"rthodox community itself; and that while he is ostensibly trying to alleviate the former' he is unfortunately committing the latter'

In light of my good friend Zev's tenac"He is ity, 1 shared with hlm my thoughts: person to be addressing this ,-,lt the right probiem. Put on Pinny Taub He's a victim
a.rd att advocate. When he realized these activists have an arrti-charedi agenda, he

When he strongly objected to my statement. i asked him about the biurb on the back cover of his book, which reads as follows: "lr4ichae1J. Salamon, Ph'D
's

book is so

important in that it actually sheds-llght on

parted company and formed his own ad,ro.u.y group. Don't get yourself drawn in
by smooth u1kers." an invitation: The next e-mail I received from Zev included be on the show with him tonight?" "Do you want to "einny Taub and I will go on," was my rep\'' child abuse is in eerhaps a brief overview of the scourge of came to light in order. Since the time that the abuse problem brethren have if-r. no^u" Catholic Church, our secular Jewish prohibltion against mesira to proclaim seized on the halachic authodties' ifrul-ot,tt"aoxJews failio report abuse to the civil abuse is more lolerated in the Orthodox they allege,

..'

this issue and identlfies how and why abuse in the Jervish community ls less reported and less known than that ln the Catholic Church

" or withln other religious groups --Dr. rhat the blurb was inaccurale' lt Salamon, iroiically, said *^ utro quite gratifpng *hen he confirmed that CDC figures in all com,t o* ittu,',l't. .I," oi .liild ub"" is about rhe same personnel he deals with -""iti"t, and that the law enforcement activists who routinely corrcut- T" the great chagrin of the many community' the claim that the abuse ratis higher inthe charedt personally thought the leve1 ao.,o, shared his feeiing thai he mieht actually be lower there than eisewhere'

'T;.

A, , ..rrrlt, world than elsewhere.

these are a member of the community' according to guilty of abetring one of the worst activists, you are ipso Jacto child abuse' No one would dare lndict the

li ;;

warvetting abuse allegations and deciding which allegations have ruled' as long as ,u.l,"i calling police, as many poshim properly tralned' And when Pinny Taub and. I
those rabbis were

aJ;"n

also didn't seem to see a problem with rabbonim

.ri-"1i"irglnable: inc^ifr"f* cJrtmunity for the sins of its church hierarchy or

.rrt .Z"a

the

Forwari,

Salamon openly JewishWeeh, and blogs'

proclaimed, "l don't like blogs'"

u'orld dlvidual pri.ests. But tarring the entlre Orthodox Jewish

,..-,

innocent chilBy hijacklng the serious mandare of protecting

MAGA zrNE IINoVEMBER

,-roi to violate the standards ol politlcal correctness'

"--Ai;h;rgh the callers somehow consisted of an inordinate ,rr*tr., oi critlcs of the Orthodox community' as I left Zev o cluttered studio I had a rather content feeling
Brenner's

8 AMI

23'

2o1'1

ll 26 cHESHVAN'

5772